Yes, the fog is THAT bad! I remember a 3 a.m.taxi ride from IGI airport that I shared with a terrified young lady from France. The fog was so bad that the driver had his 'chokra' (assistant) wipe the windshield from the OUTSIDE en route, sticking his body and hands out of the window. I had to convince my fellow traveler that this was SOP to calm her nerves down, as we lurched between overloaded trucks competing for road space. We finally arrived at my stop (the Sheraton) but she had no stomach to travel further to her hotel midtown. I handed her over to the excellent desk staff at the Sheraton, who immediately took charge and arranged a chauffeur-driven Mercedes for her for FREE. I hope she had a great visit to India from thence on.

Fog tales aside, aggravating the situation is that DEL is/was one of the world's most polluted capitals. New pollution laws may make a difference this winter...

As per ATC in India, DEL is CAT II but the ATC's aren't very thrilled with the equipment...

Quoting Comorin (Reply 3):As per ATC in India, DEL is CAT II but the ATC's aren't very thrilled with the equipment...

That is a problem right there. If the airport has such bad fog problems, there is no reason it should not have a Cat. IIIb system. Additionally, do AI, 9W and other Indian carriers order aircraft with HUD?

Quoting Comorin (Reply 3):As per ATC in India, DEL is CAT II but the ATC's aren't very thrilled with the equipment...

Runway 10 is definately CATIIIB, Runway 28 is CATII. I'm not sure about 09-27. However, the fog is so bad that the visibility goes below CATIIIB minima (~250m) and DEL doesn't have CATIIIC which will allow almost zero visibility landings. A lot of domestic flights also get delayed because many of the private carriers don't have CATIIIB certified pilots.

The fog can settle down anytime after 2000 and may not move until 1000 in the morning. Twice I've had BOM-DEL flights diverted thanks to the fog - Once we went to Jaipur (on 9W) and the second time my S2 flight returned to BOM (and waited 20 minutes for a parking bay). It is bad idea to catch late evening flights to DEL of any carrier but IC (their pilots are trained to handle CATIIIB but on really bad days even they can't do much, hopefully this year 9W would have some CATIIIB trained pilots on their planes). After 2200-2300 sometimes the fog gets so so bad it is nearly zero visibility - you can't freaking drive on the roads - flying a plane would be out of the question.

The long and short of it is that for a variety of reasons, met, thermal as well as geographical, the North Indian plains achieve a low visibility regime very close to the ground every winter. This is both horizontal as well as vertical, and even Cat IIIC would probably not suffice.

Add to that certain issues with the approach funnel . . .

But it is not all that bad. Most travellers handle the stress well. It is the small bunch of wannabes and similar noise makers who make it in front of the media to moan and groan.

For the rest it is a party. Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Jaipur are exotic cities with very cute (sic) airports that many of us would not see or visit otherwise.

No one formula works, though using Indian Airlines helps. Please remember to keep mobile phones fully charged, and carry some dry rations as well as those helpful jackets which have collars that can be used as pillows.